OrbitOWLS and Lit might have been the last two teams to join the InventOR Collegiate Challenge field for 2018, but they have one possible advantage in Friday’s final competition: home court.
The two were the top winners of the fourth annual Catalyze Klamath Falls Challenge held on May 17. (You can read all about Catalyze and its innovative competitors here.) Now they advance to the statewide stage, which for the first time is happening at Oregon Institute of Technology, aka Oregon Tech.
“Oregon Tech is honored and proud to host the 2018 InventOR competition in southern Oregon for the first time,” said Dr. Nagi Naganathan, president of Oregon Tech. “Exciting innovations are happening in Oregon’s rural areas that are positively impacting the region, and innovative students across Oregon are leading the way and positively affecting our rural economy.”
OrbitOWLS is aiming to put space within reach with low-cost satellites.
“Right now, access to space is severely limited and substantial bottlenecks exist; particularly for cube-sats,” says Micah Makana Hicks of OrbitOWLS. “Cube-sats are a technological format, small in size, but capable of providing better data for climate models, forming the backbone of space-based internet access, and spurring innovation in futuristic industries.”
OrbitOWLS invention is a a biofueled powered rocket that is scaled to cater to the cube-sat market.
Their Oregon Tech colleagues on the Lit team are developing an innovation that’s a little closer to earth. Their device transfers heat from a candle and converts it into electricity to charge devices like phones.
Should be handy at a campsite!
Come see both teams on their home turf this Friday at Oregon Tech.
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